Common on stressed honey locust and on trees with mower or string-trimmer damage at the base — which is a genuinely avoidable cause. In Plainfield, the most age-mixed canopy of the three: a genuine 1950s ring plus the pre-1900 Quaker core along Main Street (US 40) carries 60-to-90-year-old shade trees over the street, while Saratoga, Sugar Grove Farms and Legacy Farms hold 10-to-25-year-old planted stock, and the White Lick Creek bluffs hold the town's only real remnant woodland. Ash is gone here as everywhere in Indiana. A canker that has girdled more than about half the trunk circumference is structural, not cosmetic.
Plainfield's canopy and what's at risk
The most age-mixed canopy of the three: a genuine 1950s ring plus the pre-1900 Quaker core along Main Street (US 40) carries 60-to-90-year-old shade trees over the street, while Saratoga, Sugar Grove Farms and Legacy Farms hold 10-to-25-year-old planted stock, and the White Lick Creek bluffs hold the town's only real remnant woodland. Ash is gone here as everywhere in Indiana.
What to look for
Sunken dead patches on bark, sometimes oozing, often with cracked margins. Branches above the canker die back.
Whether the tree can be saved
A canker that has girdled more than about half the trunk circumference is structural, not cosmetic. Small branch cankers can be pruned out; trunk cankers usually can't.
Timing in Hendricks County
Prune out affected branches in dry weather, well below the canker.
“Andy and his crew member did not disappoint. They did an exceptional job cutting down my tree and also provided additional services on another. They…”